In My Life

"There are places I'll remember all my life..."

Everyone knows I love the Beatles. It's basically a fact of life. The sky is blue, water is wet, cash rules, and Seann loves the Beatles. I've been asked more than a few times about my own personal Beatle-mania. I think it's weird when people don't like the Beatles. Their impact not just on music, but popular culture is everywhere! I like them because there is a song in their catalogue for any occasion; I mean how many other bands have a popular birthday song besides the traditional boring one? Yeah, none! So I'm happy that my own personal history can be soundtracked by the greatest rock'n'roll band in all of history!

First off let me say my parents raised me on three things discipline, art, and good music. Mom and Dad always had the oldies station going on every trip we ever took, be it to the grocery store down the street or on one of our MANY vacations/ trips to visit relatives. I was raised on a fantastic blend of Rock'n'Roll and Motown. Growing up, I loved the Temptations, Janice Joplin, and of course a healthy dose of the King! However, I have a vivid memory of a trip back from Myrtle Beach where I first heard the song "Eleanor Rigby". I loved the sound, and the chorus of "All the lonely people, where do they all come from?" stuck in my head even as a child. I remember asking my mom later that day if she liked the new band called the Beatles. I remember the argument that followed, because I couldn't accept that because I hadn't heard their music before that, therefore they must not have existed. My concept of time then was if I hadn't heard of it before then it was new. I was four years old.
The next couple years that followed didn't yield much in the way of musical revelation. I didn't own my own boom box or radio so my musical exposure was limited to the car radio and mom's kitchen radio in the morning during breakfast before school. I always perked up a bit when I heard the Beatles. One morning that sticks out in memory, "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" was playing and I remembered the chorus for the rest of the day. I remembered singing it in class and getting chastised by my first grade teacher because it,” was about drugs and drugs are BAD!" As a deep thinking kid I was very perplexed at the idea that a happy sounding song being about something that was bad. Lucy sounded happy. After all we were taught strangers will give you drugs and strangers want to hurt you and take your from your family. Perplexed indeed.

I don't remember how old I was, but I was very young when I first remember being touched by the death of a celebrity. I remember as a kid, it must have been December 8th; there was a story on the radio talking about anniversary of the death of John Lennon. I asked my mom why she was sad. She told me that he was a Beatle who had been murdered. The radio host mentioned his wife Yoko, and his son Sean. When I heard MY name on the radio, I remember being very sad that a kid with the same name as me had lost his Dad.

The year was Anno Domini Nineteen Hundred and Ninety One and I was beginning to enter a time of musically meandering youth. While I still had the steady influx of Oldies from the family car radio, I was rebelling against what wasn't "cool." Nothing the Rents' enjoyed could possibly be cool. Right? Right. That year I received a couple birthday presents. First was a boom box that I could play my new tapes on. Take a moment if you need to giggle over your memories of tapes. I was gifted 3 tapes, A brand spankin' new New Kids On The Block album, M.C. Frickin' Hammer, and a mix tape dad made me of classic rock. Now the first two I damn near wore out from over playing, the third I listened to because I knew it would make Dad happy. There were 2 songs on the mix that I liked and would listen to when nobody was around. "Come Together" which sounded an awful lot like a Michael Jackson song from "MoonWalker" and a really weird song called "All Along The Watchtower."
Later that year, for X-mas, my family received a present that would change my life as I knew it... our first NINTENDO! I also got my first game, the first game in a series that would also be a major part of my entertainment life growing up. "Final Fantasy" consumed me. I always loved the wizards and dragons theme of fantasy having grown up with a father and godfather who played Dungeons and Dragons. I really enjoyed the music of the game as well, which were more than the annoying blips, bloops, and bleeps that my parents heard, there was one castle theme in particular I enjoyed. There was a very familiar harmony to the main Melody. A digitalized violin part that I knew very well... Unfortunately I wouldn't figure it out until many years later, but that theme quickly became my favorite music to listen to in the game.

The Beatles were mostly absent for the next 14 years of my life. They showed up here and there, usually on the radio, TV, or a cover band that played in Columbus every summer. However, this was a time I was coming into my own musically. I would discover bands like Metallica, Garbage, Aerosmith, and Linkin Park. Not to mention a very long period where I was exclusively listening to Rap and R&B. Tupac, Dr. Dre, Boys2Men, TLC, Coolio, and the physically perfect Toni Braxton dominated my headphones. In 1995 Mr. Holland's Opus came out, and being in the band at the time, it was an event! In the film John Lennon's death is referenced and kind of took me back to when I first heard about it and I went home that day and listened to my dad's vinyl Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band album. The album that "Lucy In The Sky" is on. In 1998 one of the most amazing Beatles cover albums came out. "In My Life" was an Album compiled by Sir George Martin that covered some of the more popular Beatles songs by various celebrities like Jim Carrey, Goldie Hawn, Robin Williams, and of course Sean Connery!!! I still love this album to this day and listen to tracks from it often.

"GET DOWN FROM THERE!"

The next time Beatles music came up would be 2001 when the film "I Am Sam" came out. The soundtrack consisting completely of covered Beatles songs. The girlfriend of the time listened to it nonstop and when I stayed at her apartment I'd often fall asleep to it. Later that year George Harrison would die from cancer, I remember the newspaper clippings my dad had around the house once when I visited from college. The most notable was a cartoon of George's Guitar Crying. I found a copy of The White Album and listened to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" about a million times. It is to this day in my top 5 favorite Beatles songs.

When 2006 came around, it was a year of a LOT of change. Let's start off with the small fact that since I graduated from Ball State University to much lack of fanfare there was a big hole in my life. When I moved back home with my parents I had a decided lack of friends. I found a lot of company in the music I listened to. I was in a state of purgatory musically though and I didn't realize it until months later when I started dating a girl named Chelsi. The infamous Chelsi opened my world to many new things most notably tattoos, piercings, and lots of music! One night she told me she found an awesome cover I had to listen to of one of her favorite songs. The band was called "gODHEAD" and the song was Eleanor Rigby. It actually isn't a bad cover at all I enjoyed. This launched us into a big discussion of how much she loved the Beatles and how I grew up with them. So given that at the time I was a musical sponge (not that much has changed in that respect) I decided to dig out all of Dad's vinyls and relisten to the Beatles. My friend Alex supplied me with a cd that contained ever single Beatles album... except "Let It Be" which is odd... but Dad had that one on cd so it was cool. I started listening to the Beatles everyday, all the time. I enjoyed the memories like reconnecting with old friends, friends who'd been around since I was a kid.

One day I was replaying my old Final Fantasy game when I got to that one castle I always like the music for. I heard that familiar harmony again. I knew those violins!!!! It was the same harmony from Eleanor Rigby! I researched the composer and despite being raised and educated in Japan he was a huge fan of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and the Rolling Stones. My love for that game and the Beatles was only made more fanatical at this point! I so dig the very strange parallel to 2 of my most favorite childhood things.

I had officially rediscovered the Beatles! The timing could not have been better either as later that year a new Cirque Due Soleil Show came out in Las Vegas entitled "Love." I was a minor fan of Cirque but the idea of a Cirque show with a Beatles soundtrack was mind-blowing. The Album came out and I listened to it everyday for months! I was completely hooked. I had childhood memories, modern enjoyment and the best was still to come. The fact that there are literally millions of people the world over that feel the same way about the Beatles connected me with others. I went on a date with a girl in the summer of 2007 and on our way to the Bartholomew County Fairgrounds she picked up my ipod to choose some music. She chose a song from the Beatles "1" album that I wasn't really into and rarely listened to. However, I now love the song "Paperback Writer" and will eternally associate the song with Courtney. Also in 2007 as a birthday present from my parents, I received The Beatles Anthology DVD collection. Not only was I now a fan but I KNEW the Beatles themselves. Being a history buff I enjoyed the world spanning history of the band and was re-educated on just how great they really were/are!

In the years since, I have followed the Beatles religiously. I have my times when I listen to something else. I'm still ravenous for new music, but I have a few constants and the Beatles are definitely tops. I've subscribed pretty heavily to the message of their music, that message being peace and love. I've become a pacifist, and John Lennon is a personal hero to that effect. It's just my opinion that they are an all around consistent and positive band.... or they were! There isn't a day that goes by anymore that I don't listen to a few songs by the Beatles. My room, my apartment, and even my office are adorned with Beatles memorabilia. Even my favorite comedian played Mr. Kite in "Across The Universe!" Most of my best friends are fans themselves and their music can often provide a soundtrack to our time together. They are just so heavily intertwined in my life; it would be weird if I didn't like them!

So there you have it. I think the best thing about this is this isn't an explanation of something that once was. This is only a summation of my own personal 27 years of life experience with their music. They were popular 20 years before I existed and will continue to be popular long after I've decided to stop being immortal." Though I know I'll never lose affection for people and things that went before, I know I'll often stop and think about them..."

"In my life, I've loved them all."

-S-